The work of the great literary and cultural critic Walter Benjamin is an audacious plotting of history, art, and thought; a reservoir of texts, commentaries, scraps, and fragments of everyday life, art, and dreams. Throughout his life, Benjamin gathered together all kinds of artifacts, assortments of images, texts, and signs, themselves representing experiences, ideas, and hopes, each of which was enthusiastically logged, systematized, and analyzed by their author. In this way, Benjamin laid the groundwork for the salvaging of his own legacy.

Intricate and intimate, Walter Benjamin's Archive leads readers to the heart of his intellectual world, yielding a rich and detailed portrait of its author.

An absorbing selection of Walter Benjamin's personal manuscripts, images, and documents

About the Author
Walter Benjamin was born in Germany in 1892 and died in Spain in 1940. His other books include Illuminations, The Arcades Project, and, with Verso, One-Way Street and The Origin of German Tragic Drama.

Reviews
Esther Leslie's translation reveals that no thought should go un-noted. -- Peter Conrad * Observer *
This Archive is an object to treasure and has the aura of a reliquary, but Benjamin is no saint. Hidden within this small selection is a profaning giant whom we are only beginning to see. * Independent *
The most important German aesthetician and literary critic of the twentieth century. -- George Steiner
Elegantly brings together the materials of Benjamin's bequest and reminds us of what his friend Theodor Adorno rightly said was its greatest significance for subsequent thinking. * Frieze *



Book Information
ISBN 9781784782030
Author Erdmut Wizisla
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint Verso Books
Publisher Verso Books
Weight(grams) 698g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 153mm * 25mm